Lenin mausoleum
The Lenin Mausoleum ( Russian Мавзолей В. И. Ленина Mawsolej V. I. Lenina ) is a building located on the Red Square in Moscow . The body of the revolutionary leader Lenin , who died in January 1924, is laid out there.
Building
Lenin's funeral was a state event staged by Josef Stalin . Before his death, Lenin had decreed that no personality cult should be practiced around him. The family members, especially his wife Nadezhda Krupskaya , resisted his embalming , but Stalin prevailed. The first mausoleum was smaller than the current structure and was made of oak. It was erected in front of the Kremlin wall in just three days, from January 21 to 24, 1924 . Since it was more of a temporary arrangement, the same architect, Alexei Shtusev , commissioned the state government in the summer of 1924 to build a larger mausoleum, which was the same size and shape as it is today, but was still made of oak. This structure housed Lenin's body for five years. However, the wood of the mausoleum began to rot after a few years, so that in 1930 a new stone building was decided. Now, according to the previous building plans, fine Labrador stone and dark red granite were used as building materials.
During the Second World War , the mausoleum was clad and covered with wood to protect it from German air raids, but had to be restored after the end of the war. Lenin's body itself survived the war unscathed. The coffin was evacuated to Tyumen in 1942. However, the honor guard continued to pull up in front of the Moscow mausoleum, so that the evacuation was hardly noticed by the residents.
Specialists brought the body back to Moscow as early as June 1945. Lenin lies in the mausoleum in an illuminated coffin made of bulletproof glass. The temperature inside the coffin is kept constant at seven degrees Celsius, the humidity is low and also constant.
The mausoleum was renovated for the first time in 2012/2013 and was closed for eight months until May 2013. The building was attached to the unstable ground using a special method and more than 350 reinforced concrete piles. During the work, a white tent covered the building. The embalmed corpse remained in place the entire time.
Cult of the dead
In the Soviet Union, the mausoleum was an important landmark in the country and was an expression of deep reverence for the theoretician of communism. The visit of the mausoleum by millions of people is comparable to the pilgrimages of the faithful to the churches and places of work of their saints.
During the victory parade in 1945 , Soviet soldiers threw hundreds of captured Wehrmacht flags in a symbolic gesture in front of the mausoleum at Lenin's feet. During the military parades, which have been taking place annually on May 9th, the day of the victory over Nazi Germany, since 1995 , the entire party leadership stood in the stands of the mausoleum in Soviet times. From here, party leaders made Victory Day speeches.
After his death in 1953, Stalin's body lay next to Lenin's for a few years. The inscription above the main entrance was changed to "Lenin Stalin" at that time. As part of the de-Stalinization process, Khrushchev had Stalin's body removed from the mausoleum on the evening of October 31, 1961 and buried in the cemetery of honor behind the mausoleum (the so-called necropolis on the Kremlin wall ).
The honor guard of the Kremlin regiment was withdrawn in 1993 under President Boris Yeltsin , but reintroduced on December 12, 1997. She is now guarding the Eternal Flame at the grave of the unknown soldier in the nearby Alexander Gardens .
Lenin's remains
It became known around 1989, at the time of glasnost , that a team of scientists had constantly and carefully looked after the condition of the corpse during the existence of the Soviet Union . Up until the 1940s, medical professionals believed that they had optimally embalmed the body. In 1924, all soft tissues were soaked evenly with embalming and preserving substances, for which a system of interconnected cuts was created in the corpse. A solution of secret composition was applied to the skin, which resulted in a more or less natural color and elasticity. Lenin's brain had already been removed for scientific research. Lenin was initially dressed in a uniform. Before the Second World War, these were replaced by civilian clothes. When Lenin's coffin was evacuated in 1942 because of World War II, scientists found that the conservation methods had failed. Stalin ordered to unconditionally preserve and restore the body. The scientists only managed to do this with great effort. Since the beginning of the 21st century, twelve scientists have checked Lenin's body in the mausoleum twice a week. At the end of 2003, the body was placed in a tub with a special solution, with cosmetic retouching being carried out.
Every two years - most recently from mid-February to mid-April 2015 - the mausoleum is closed for two months in order to carry out scheduled prophylactic work on the corpse. Specialists from the All-Russian Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants are responsible for this. In addition to doing biochemical work on the mummy, she also gets a new suit. In addition, the equipment installed in the mausoleum is tested so that a. constant temperature and humidity are guaranteed.
The cost of caring for the corpse and maintaining the mausoleum - around US $ 1.5 million a year - has been borne by a private fund since 1991. During the existence of the Soviet Union there were a number of specialized laboratories that only cared about the preservation of Lenin's body. After their state funding had ceased, the WILAR Scientific Center took over this task. The Russian government considered and advised several times about burying Lenin's body. Most recently, Boris Yeltsin had planned a funeral with the support of the Orthodox Church , but was unable to implement it.
On January 20, 2011, one day before Lenin's death anniversary, Duma deputy Vladimir Medinsky ( United Russia ) launched a new initiative for the final burial of Lenin, which was supported by a majority of Russians. Representatives of the Orthodox Church and the Islamic community in Russia also spoke out in favor of removing the body from the mausoleum. In 2012 this initiative ended with no results, although this topic is still not closed.
literature
- Dimitri Volkogonov : Lenin. Utopia and terror. German translation by Markus Schweisthal, Christian Geisinger, Jana Neik and Christiane Sieg. 2nd Edition. Econ, Düsseldorf 1996
Web links
- Historical mausoleum pictures (English)
- Photos from the construction of the mausoleum (English)
- Audio image 60min. over the mausoleum on MDR culture
Individual evidence
- ↑ Moscow: Lenin's mausoleum reopens to visitors . Spiegel Online , May 15, 2013; Retrieved February 4, 2016.
- ↑ pravo.gov.ru
- ↑ a b Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow closed for two months . moskau.ru, February 16, 2015 (German); Retrieved February 4, 2016
- ↑ Мединский: Тело Ленина пора выносить из мавзолея
- ↑ Muslims suggest transferring Lenin's body to Communist Party's balance
- ↑ Протоиерей Димитрий Смирнов: «Я всех призываю помолиться Богу, чтобы эта поганая нечисть окончательно убралась с нашей святой земли " .
- ↑ Russia's fear of Lenin's embalmed corpse . Welt Online , June 12, 2012; Retrieved February 4, 2016
Coordinates: 55 ° 45 ′ 13 ″ N , 37 ° 37 ′ 11 ″ E